A few months ago, Unity launched day-one support for Android XR with tools, features, and dedicated documentation to help developers start experimenting and creating on this exciting new platform.We recently sat down with developers from four industry-leading XR studios – Owlchemy Labs, TRIPP, Resolution Games, and Litesport – to hear more about their experiences porting apps and creating new experiences in Android XR. These teams shared insight into their successes and challenges, and they provided actionable advice for developers ready to chart their course into Android XR development.TRIPP, an AI powered mental wellness app available on mobile and VR platforms, is bringing their flagship title to Android XR, while Resolution Games is porting their hit title Demeo. Litesport is bringing over numerous apps and titles: their Litesport app plus Rumble Boxing, PureBarre, StretchLab, Cyclebar, and Club Pilates, their five Xponential+ fitness titles. Lastly, Owlchemy Labs is bringing over Vacation Simulator and Job Simulator. Owlchemy Labs is also creating a new game exclusively for Android XR, Inside [JOB], which is designed as an onboarding experience onto the new platform.If you’re planning on creating and/or porting your existing games and apps to Android XR, keep on reading! Why developers are creating for Android XR and choosing UnityExploring a new platform can be both an exciting and challenging endeavor. When we asked developers why they chose Unity for their Android XR development, they commented on Unity’s robust multiplatform support, integration with emerging XR standards like OpenXR, and developer-friendly resources like sample projects and templates.Phillip Johnson, lead platform engineer at Owlchemy Labs, explains his appreciation of Unity’s support for Android XR: “Unity's strength lies in its multi-platform support, making it a top choice for game developers. Android XR support is particularly easy due to Unity's existing Android compatibility and the flexibility of the Android XR framework. This efficiency allows developers to focus on improving gameplay and user experience.”For Resolution Games, porting their hit game Demeo to Android XR wasn’t just about expanding to a new audience – it was an opportunity to modernize the game for all platforms. Petter Nygren, tech lead for Demeo, shares that, “Android XR requires a modernization of the game that also benefits all the platforms and the game as a whole.”As experienced XR developers, the transition aligns with their ethos of embracing new devices. As Nygren explains, “We’re right in the middle of XR development. Any new platform is a great step forward. Android XR is the next step for us.” Nygren credits Unity for making the process smooth, especially due to features like OpenXR input handling and Universal Render Pipeline (URP) integrations, saying “We would not have been able to create the same product without Unity as the engine.”Porting to Android XRWhile it makes sense to bring your game to a new platform – whether to reach a wider audience, meet players where they’re already gaming, or be an early option on a new headset – porting an existing game to a new platform can require copious amounts of time and labor to get it to fit new platform specifications, especially if you're developing natively for each one. Using a tool like Unity, which supports more than 20 platforms including Meta Quest, visionOS, and PlayStation VR2, can streamline this process.Daniel Kharlas, TRIPP’s director of Product & Technology Operations, credits Unity for its proactive communication with developers. “Unity has been very clear in their direction – from embracing URP, OpenXR, and XR Interaction Toolkit to emphasizing standards for XR hands,” he says. “All of these decisions made it easier for us to adapt quickly, especially moving into Android XR. Unity and Google’s partnership, combined with these choices, really shine here.”Advice for getting started now, without hardwareJust because there’s limited availability of development hardware doesn’t mean you can’t get started with Android XR today. We talked to our developers about what challenges they faced and some tactical advice for how to get started.For both Resolution Games and TRIPP, a specific challenge was making the switch to URP. Nygren from Resolution Games explains that, “It’s important to maintain the original look of the game, and that has been quite challenging in the update… It’s very hard to sort of replicate the look of the built-in render pipeline with URP if you want to keep it one-to-one with the visuals. The game is quite big, and there’s a lot of assets and content. It was a lot of work to do the upgrade and retain the same look.”“Converting projects with custom shaders to URP was our most labor-intensive step when transitioning from Built-in Rendering to URP,” explains Kharlas from TRIPP. “If you have complex custom shaders – often used for unique art styles in VR – be prepared to invest the time needed to convert those to URP-supported shaders. In the long run, this will make subsequent ports, like to Android XR, much smoother.”Kharlas laid out clear steps for how to prepare for Android XR development, even without a headset in hand. First, developers must start by updating your projects to Unity 6 [or 6.1] and adopt OpenXR. Then, Kharlas gives the following recommendations:Use URP (Universal Render Pipeline) to ensure graphical compatibilityTransition to Vulkan for better performanceLeverage XR Hands packages since Android XR is hands-firstBoth Litesport and TRIPP found the VR and MR multiplayer templates and Android XR sample project invaluable to get started. “I’d recommend following Unity’s sample project setup for Android XR. Understanding how elements work together before you begin porting or creating your app accelerates your learning curve,” explains Ryan Turner, Software Lead at Litesport. For more information on converting to URP, check out our e-book, Introduction to the URP for advanced creators – which has been newly updated for Unity 6. You can also access our ebook Create popular shaders and visual effects with the Universal Render Pipeline to learn more about shaders. For those looking to get started with our VR multiplayer template, watch our video tutorial:New capabilities in Unity 6Back in October 2024, Unity 6 was released with Android XR support being made available beginning on Unity 6 and onward. Therefore, those creating for Android XR must upgrade your projects to Unity 6 or newer.Luckily, representatives of all studios are enthusiastic about their Unity 6 experiences thus far.For Litesport, this meant skipping two versions up to Unity 6, which is necessary for Android XR support: “We were on Unity 2021, and so we upgraded to Unity 6 before we started the port, and that was critical... We have a complicated app with a whole bunch of stuff in it… and the upgrade's been awesome" explained Turner.When asked about Unity 6, Nygren from Resolution Games explained: “Unity 6 is quite similar to previous versions, making migration relatively easy. It functions as expected, which is great. The only Unity 6-specific feature we used for the Demeo port was Adaptive Probe Volumes, the new light probe system. This system was especially appreciated by our lighting artist, who found it to be an improvement over the previous system.”What’s new in Unity 6.1 and Android XR Pre-Release packageWe recently launched our first update release to Unity 6: Unity 6.1. For XR developers building in Unity 6.1 (released last week), you can now streamline the build process with the ability to create multiple build configurations and leverage support for Shader Graph with URP Application Spacewarp. We’ve already been working with Litesport and TRIPP to validate our tools on Android XR through our production verification initiative that ensures our latest platforms are tested using real productions.We also released our Android XR Pre-Release package, which brings several exciting features and optimizations: Dynamic Refresh Rate to optimize performance and power consumption based on your XR application’s current needs; Multi-View Per View Viewports support for Vulkan; visibility mesh occlusion to enhance GPU performance for post-processing effects; hand mesh functionality that enables hand visualization and occlusion; and updates to the Unity MR Template, including occlusion and persistent anchors.Takeaways: Upgrade to Unity 6 and begin todayAs these four studios demonstrate, Android XR development with Unity offers exciting opportunities paired with surprisingly smooth workflows. Whether you’re building new apps or migrating existing ones, here are key takeaways:Upgrade to Unity 6 and adopt OpenXR: These two steps are required for creating your Android XR project. Additionally, use Vulkan as your rendering API to significantly reduce GPU overhead while maintaining graphics quality.Start now, even without hardware: Leverage Unity’s latest tools, templates, and documentation to help you get started.To stay updated on Unity’s latest Android XR news and developments, be sure to bookmark the #AndroidXR tag. For everything XR, visit Unity’s XR development homepage to explore all the tools and resources we have to offer.